This Sunday we celebrate the Third Sunday of Advent and the Advent Season is now half-over! As we move through the heart of Advent and prepare ourselves for Christmas, I thought I would include a meditation from St. Alphonsus Liguori to help us prepare for the great mystery of the Incarnation that we will be celebrating in a couple of weeks. This reflection comes from his book, “The Incarnation Birth and Infancy of Our Lord Jesus Christ” – perhaps you will be able to set a few minutes aside to read and pray with this reflection as part of your Advent preparation.
“Consider that the eternal Father, in giving us his Son for a Redeemer, for victim and price of our ransom, could not have given us stronger motives for hope and love, to inspire us with confidence, and to oblige us to love him. In giving us his Son (says St. Augustine), he could give us nothing more. He desires that we should avail ourselves of this immense gift in order to gain for ourselves eternal salvation, and every grace that we want; whilst in Jesus we find all that we can desire; we find light, strength, peace, confidence, love and eternal glory; for Jesus Christ is a gift which contains all the gifts that we can seek for or desire.
‘How hath He not also, with Him, given us all things? (Romans 8.32)’ God having given us his beloved only-begotten Son, who is the fountain and treasure of all good, who need fear that he should deny us any favor that we ask of him? ‘Christ Jesus is of God made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1.30).’ God hath given him to us in order that he might be ot us ignorant and blind creatures light and wisdom, wherewith to walk in the way of salvation; in order that to us who are deserving of hell he might be justice, enabling us to aspire to paradise; that to us sinners he might be sanctification, to obtain for us holiness; that, finally, to us slaves of the evil he might be a ransom to purchase for us the liberty of the songs of God. In short, the Apostles says that with Jesus Christ we have been enriched with every good gift and every grace, if we ask it through his merits: ‘In all things, you are made rich in Him,…so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace’ (1 Corinthians 1.5).
And this gift which God has made us of his Son is a gift to each one of us; for he hath given him entirely to each of us, as if he had given him to each one alone, so that every one of us may say: Jesus is all mine; his body is mine; his blood is mine; his life is mine; his sorrows, his death, his merits, are all mine. Wherefore St. Paul said, ‘He loved me and delivered Himself for me’ (Galatians 2.20). And every one may say the same thing; ‘My Redeemer has loved me; and for the love that he bore me he hath given himself entirely to me.’”
“Consider that the eternal Father, in giving us his Son for a Redeemer, for victim and price of our ransom, could not have given us stronger motives for hope and love, to inspire us with confidence, and to oblige us to love him. In giving us his Son (says St. Augustine), he could give us nothing more. He desires that we should avail ourselves of this immense gift in order to gain for ourselves eternal salvation, and every grace that we want; whilst in Jesus we find all that we can desire; we find light, strength, peace, confidence, love and eternal glory; for Jesus Christ is a gift which contains all the gifts that we can seek for or desire.
‘How hath He not also, with Him, given us all things? (Romans 8.32)’ God having given us his beloved only-begotten Son, who is the fountain and treasure of all good, who need fear that he should deny us any favor that we ask of him? ‘Christ Jesus is of God made unto us wisdom, and justice, and sanctification and redemption’ (1 Corinthians 1.30).’ God hath given him to us in order that he might be ot us ignorant and blind creatures light and wisdom, wherewith to walk in the way of salvation; in order that to us who are deserving of hell he might be justice, enabling us to aspire to paradise; that to us sinners he might be sanctification, to obtain for us holiness; that, finally, to us slaves of the evil he might be a ransom to purchase for us the liberty of the songs of God. In short, the Apostles says that with Jesus Christ we have been enriched with every good gift and every grace, if we ask it through his merits: ‘In all things, you are made rich in Him,…so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace’ (1 Corinthians 1.5).
And this gift which God has made us of his Son is a gift to each one of us; for he hath given him entirely to each of us, as if he had given him to each one alone, so that every one of us may say: Jesus is all mine; his body is mine; his blood is mine; his life is mine; his sorrows, his death, his merits, are all mine. Wherefore St. Paul said, ‘He loved me and delivered Himself for me’ (Galatians 2.20). And every one may say the same thing; ‘My Redeemer has loved me; and for the love that he bore me he hath given himself entirely to me.’”
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